Thanksgiving

The weekend before Thanksgiving we started getting ready. The first thing we did was try out some of our new games to see what we wanted to play on Thanksgiving. The kids have probably played "Cover Your Assets" a hundred times since this first picture was taken. Sometimes it has ended in tears, like in the picture, but mostly it has been a lot of fun. It was also fun getting ready in other ways for the day. The kids and Nate were a HUGE help! Everyone helped Nate do the turkeys and Lia and Laura were great decorators! The night before when I went up to say goodnight to everyone, I found Lia, Laura, and Megan all tucked in Laura's bed. They were so cute I didn't want to move them! I let them stay until Megan fell asleep and then I moved them because I figured everyone needed a decent night's sleep for the next day. Other than the fact that Katie's kids got sick so they couldn't come, everything turned out great! It was so nice to see (almost) everyone and be together. Even with all the changes in our family, we still have a lot to be thankful for.

Mid November

Listening to Lia and Laura practice primary songs together makes me so happy! They were supposed to play in Sacrament meeting until Lia slipped on our kitchen floor right before bed and broke both bones in her right arm. I felt so bad (partly because I was the reason she came back downstairs and ran into the kitchen where she slipped in her socks), but she was so brave and has been a good sport about it since. They had to set it, so she spent almost two weeks in a splint and has another couple of weeks in her new cast. In other news, I took the kids to get smoothies to thank them for babysitting each other and Katie's kids the night Matthew went through the temple, Lia had fun with Annie at Grandma and Grandpa Nelsons, and Megan had a movie night with our neighbors. We sure lucked out with our neighbors!

November

Laura entered the reflections contest at school this year with a piano piece she composed. When we found out she was moving on to the next level (district), we were told she needed the score to her song. Thanks to a friend in our ward who has a computer program that makes that nice and easy, Laura got to see a written version of her song. She was pretty excited about it and excited to be moving on! Also at the beginning of November, we took the kids to a BYU women's soccer game. It was a fun, super cheap activity for a Saturday night!

Halloween

For Halloween this year we had Junie B. Jones, a skin suit guy, a peacock, and a strawberry. The kids all trick-or-treated with their friends this year, so for the first time since we've had kids, Nate and I stayed home together and passed out candy and hot chocolate and scones. (Josh's friends Bryson and Camden were also in skin suits and Lia's friend Kylee was a pineapple. Unfortunately I lost my pictures of them with their friends.)

Middle of October

Nate's work participated in a charity soccer tournament for refugee children in Salt Lake. We got to go and help and the kids got to play. It was a great afternoon! At the end, they gave out awards for sportsmanship. Josh got the award for his team for helping Megan after she got hurt by another player when their teams were playing against each other (Josh didn't tell us this--Megan did). He was the only non-refugee player that got an award. I was so proud of him, especially because Megan was the one he helped. Later that day we went to a Halloween party at the Nelson's. Janet always does a fun party for the kids and they look forward to it every year!

End of our California Trip

Our last night in LA, we took the kids to get ramen (real ramen--not the cheap stuff from the grocery store). It was really good and I was proud of the kids for trying it, even Megan liked it. On Sunday we drove to Darren and Sarah's to go to church with them and spend the day. It was nice to see them and they were so great to host us again, for the second time in just a couple weeks. That night when we got back to our hotel, the kids made friends with the girl at the front desk. When I went back down to the front desk to get some extra towels, she said to me, "You've found Jesus haven't you? I can tell." I was not expecting that, but we talked about the light of Christ and I asked her what church she belonged to and if she knew anything about the Mormons. Anyway, long story short, the kids and I all wrote her a note and I took the notes down to her with a Book of Mormon. I don't know if anything will come of it, but I was grateful for the opportunity. That's the first time anything like that has ever happened to me. I was so glad to be able to share the experience with the kids. 

Utah Football Game

Nate, Josh, Kent, Darren, Charlie and Sam all went to the Utah vs. UCLA game at the Rose Bowl. They had a great time! Josh was so cute with Charlie and Sam and Nate always loves being with his dad and brothers and watching a game. The girls went shopping and swimming while they were gone. I don't have any pictures of our day, but we had a fun time as well.